It’s been wonderful having you support this blog over the years, as we shared environmental news, within and outside Nigeria. We are very grateful.
Please move along with us, to http://www.econigeria.com . We remain committed to amplifying voices and actions for sustainable development. With us, green news will be cool and fun, but also as serious as climate change is.
Please feel free to contribute in whatever capacity, for the overall good of our planet.
On Saturday May 31 2014, residents of Ekun Alfa beach area were inundated by flood waters from the Atlantic Ocean. The waters intruded into their homes and businesses rendering some homeless and stranded. Flooding has always been a challenge Lagos State faces but has become more intense in recent years. Many attribute it’s intensity to rising sea levels caused by melting of ice sheets in the polar region, but another school of thought believes the situation in Lagos State is worsened by the Lagos Mega Project, Eko Atlantic City. As the world marks World Environment Day (WED) 2014, with the global theme “Raise your voice, not the sea level” Fight Against Desert Encroachment (FADE) invites you to join the debate on “Lagos floods, Sea level rise and the Eko Atlantic city project; is there a link”? Please join the twitter conversation all through Thursday, June 5, 2014. Follow FADE @Fadeafrica and use the hash tag #WEDFADE . It gets even more interesting! 3 participants with the most relevant tweets will win recharge cards worth N1500 or N1000 each depending on your network. Everyone loves to win. Be a winner!!! Join the conversation to raise your voice in saving our environment and proffering ways to manage flooding. The submitted views will be compiled and submitted to Lagos State Ministry of The Environment and Africa Regional Office of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
The Home of Mother Earth Foundation HOMEF team announces with pleasure confirmed dates for the HOME School #03. The new dates for the meeting are 20th to 24th May, 2014. The instigator for this round or courses will be Kenyan born author and activist, Firoze Manji. Following established traditions, HOME School #03 will take place in three locations as follows;
Abuja – Tuesday 20th May 2014
Bori, Ogoni – Thursday 22nd May 2014
Makoko, Lagos – Saturday 24th May 2014
The Sustainability Academy provides the fundamental vehicle for the attainment of the change HOMEF seeks to build. The academy provides spaces for knowledge creation and sharing. Through this we work to eliminate ignorance and build self-reliance and confidence in the wisdom that has preserved and improved our environment over the millennia. The academy is not a physical structure, but rather fluid spaces for participatory learning.
Through the academy HOMEF connects peoples and shares knowledge and ideas of what has worked or is working or would work. The space is vital for analyses and sharing of why and how communities are trained to acquiesce to exploitation, oppression and humiliation. The academy also helps to expose tokenistic actions to dull resistance and breed debilitating dependence. The Sustainability Academy is also a space for contest of ideas. The Sustainability Academy (HOME School) provides the space for our work on Fossil Fuels and Hunger Politics.
When I got a mail from Cameron about helping tell the story of his wife Heather, who survived mesothelioma, I was touched and really moved to do so. After I read about the cause of this form of cancer, and how the causative agent might be close to home, I had my mouth open for a few minutes, in shock. I called my friend who is into building engineer, Emmanuel Aloaye, and he told me it is an old building material, but still being used by some builders. Hmmmmm, nawao!!!!! I have heard about asbestos, but I never really took time out to research on it. As I drove into my estate, I looked at the roofs of building, and I was sure I was seeing roofs made from asbestos. I got home and took an intense look at my floor. I guess I was beginning to get afraid. I shoved my fear away with a scripture; ”He that is in me is greater that he that is in asbestos…….Amen”.
After companies using this deadly substance were banned in some western countries, they moved to developing countries, especially Africa, a continent without knowledge of the consequences of asbestos, and without regulations nor strong policies for the protection of her citizens. Asbestos is of one of the most deadly naturally occurring minerals on earth– asbestos.
Asbestos fibers are 700 times smaller than a piece of human hair. When disturbed mostly during product use demolition work, building or home maintenance, repair, and remodeling, these microscopic fibers can be inhaled and cling to the lining of your lungs.
Asbestos is a known cause of asbestosis, asbestos lung cancer, and mesothelioma cancer.
The World Health Organization has declared asbestos as one of the most dangerous occupational carcinogens in the world.
Russia is the largest exporter of asbestos, followed by Canada as the second-largest exporter.
The United States, Europe, Japan and South Korea have all limited asbestos use in their respective countries, but asbestos is still exported to many developing countries including Nigeria and poses a risk to millions of people.
Every year around 3,000 people are diagnosed with mesothelioma, a deadly cancer caused by exposure to asbestos.On average, they are given 10 months to live, that’s 300 days, 7,200 hours. Asbestos fibers may be released into the air by the disturbance of asbestos-containing material In general, exposure may occur only when the asbestos-containing material is disturbed or damaged in some way to release particles and fibers into the air.
Asbestos was mined beginning in the late 1800’s for many commercials uses in the shipbuilding, automotive and construction industries for a few examples.
Where asbestos may be found:
Vinyl floor tiles and the backing on vinyl sheet flooring and adhesives
Roofing and siding materials
Textured paint and patching compounds used on wall and ceilings
Walls and floors around wood-burning stoves protected with asbestos paper, millboard, or cement sheet, Hot water and steam pipes coated with asbestos material or covered with an asbestos blanket or tape
Oil and coal furnaces and door gaskets with asbestos insulation
Heat-resistant fabrics
Automobile clutches and brakes.
There will be a follow up on this issue, till then spread the story you have just read, protec yourself, your loved ones and the nation.
Opinion on the Fifth Assessment Report of the IPCC By Fight Against Desert Encroachment (FADE) “The one message that comes out very clearly is that the world has to adapt and the world has to mitigate … and the sooner we do that, the less the chances of some of the worst impacts of climate change being faced in different parts of the world.” When RajendraPachauri, Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) made this statement at the presentation on the fifth assessment report of the IPCC, it sounded like a bitter pill to swallow. The Report titled ‘Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability” places human activities at the front of climate change, and paints a glaring picture of a dark future the world faces if mitigation and adoption measures are not taken urgently against climate change.
In different parts of Nigeria, as hundreds of new buildings spring up daily, holes are drilled deep into the land for clean water. Land experts say this indiscriminate borehole drilling could cause land subsidence or collapse in the future, and could also contaminate ground water. Should citizens have the right to get their water wherever they can? Or should the drilling stop – and where would the water come from in this case? I am a Heinrich Boell Foundation i-resource explorer. Read my story, and watch my video.
Insecurity and struggle for resources are becoming common challenges facing Nigeria as a country. Apart from the issues of erosion, desertification, flooding and other major environmental issues Nigeria is facing, these latest issues can also be linked to climate change. The latest IPCC’s report should leave the world in no doubt about the scale and immediacy of the threat to human survival, health, and wellbeing.
A record 160 countries and territories across some 7000 cities and towns including Nigeria, will be participating in the world’s largest celebration for the planet on March 29, at 8:30PM local time. Earth Hour, organised by WWF, has evolved into the world’s largest environmental grassroots movement connecting hundreds of millions of people across all seven continents. The movement has grown from a single lights out event to the world’s largest grassroots movement for the environment, and the actual dedicated hour remains a key driver of wider engagement to act on environmental priorities across the world.
Starting in New Zealand, Earth Hour will make its way through 157 countries and territories passing all seven continents including Australia, Asia, Europe, Africa, then to North and South America, and even to Antarctica, before ending in Tahiti.
Turning off our lights for an hour won’t stop climate change–not even if we all do it, so the event is about more than 60 minutes in the dark. It’s a aimed at inspiring earth’s humans to pledge to take action for our planet.
You can be part of the Nigerian movement in these cities:
WHO has reported that in 2012 around 7 million people died – one in eight of total global deaths – as a result of air pollution exposure. This finding more than doubles previous estimates and confirms that air pollution is now the world’s largest single environmental health risk. In Nigeria, smoke from indoor air pollution contributes to 95,000 deaths every year.
In particular, the new data reveal a stronger link between both indoor and outdoor air pollution exposure and cardiovascular diseases, such as strokes and ischaemic heart disease, as well as between air pollution and cancer. The new estimates are not only based on more knowledge about the diseases caused by air pollution, but also upon better assessment of human exposure to air pollutants through the use of improved measurements and technology. This has enabled scientists to make a more detailed analysis of health risks from a wider demographic spread that now includes rural as well as urban areas.
“Cleaning up the air we breathe prevents noncommunicable diseases as well as reduces disease risks among women and vulnerable groups, including children and the elderly,Dr Flavia Bustreo, WHO Assistant Director-General Family, Women and Children’s Health says “Poor women and children pay a heavy price from indoor air pollution since they spend more time at home breathing in smoke and soot from leaky coal and wood cook stoves.”
The release of this data is a significant step in advancing a WHO roadmap for preventing diseases related to air pollution. This involves the development of a WHO-hosted global platform on air quality and health to generate better data on air pollution-related diseases and strengthened support to countries and cities through guidance, information and evidence about health gains from key interventions.
Solving Nigeria’s energy crises could be the first strategy to reducing these deaths in our country.
‘Project Hello World’, is an initiative that provides
Internet access and digital education to underprivileged African communities.
The first of the outdoor solar-powered computer stations, called ‘Hello World
Hubs’, has been installed in Nigeria and is expected to reach over 2,000 children
and adults in Suleja, Niger State. Having never interacted with the Internet before, the children of Suleja have
quickly adapted to the new technology and can regularly be found playing the
Hub’s pre-programed math and science games — often sharing a screen
between 14 or more children.
Eco Nigeria 